Illinois school test scores: Income-based gap proves hard to close

Schools try to narrow the divide with strategies such as mentoring, double periods for math and reading

October 30, 2009|By Tara Malone and Darnell Little | Chicago Tribune

Surrounded by sports fields and suburban lawns, Hadley Junior High School could be the envy of the state.

Nine of every 10 students at the Glen Ellyn school passed state exams in reading and math, according to the 2009 Illinois School Report Card made public Friday.

But average scores belie a widespread problem the federal government has spent billions trying to fix nationwide: While at least 95 percent of Hadley's well-off students passed the eighth-grade reading and math tests, about half of their low-income classmates met the same goals, revealing an achievement gap that is as persistent as it is pernicious.

Seven years after the federal No Child Left Behind Law ambitiously pledged to eliminate such disparities and invested nearly $6.2 billion in Illinois schools alone, the progress has been modest and isolated.

While the performance gap between advantaged and disadvantaged grade school children narrowed in Illinois since 2002 -- in math, the margin shrunk by at least 13 percentage points in third, fifth and eighth grades -- the divide among high school juniors actually widened slightly in math and reading.

"In terms of anything that matters, No Child Left Behind has not done what it has promised," said Bob Schaeffer of Fair Test, a non-profit group that monitors standardized exams nationally.

The rift in test scores is perhaps most startling in top suburban districts from Naperville to Barrington. Schools have responded with everything from mentoring to double periods in math and reading, but the divide has proved more difficult to close than the federal law suggests.

"The story is different in all districts, but the achievement gap is real regardless," said Superintendent Ann Riebock of Glen Ellyn School District 41, which includes Hadley.

The gap has been a problem for decades before No Child Left Behind redefined how schools were judged by tracking students by race, income and other factors.

Under its rules, if one group of pupils fails to meet a rising set of federal expectations, the entire school risks sanctions, even closing. All students must score at grade level by 2014 -- a goal that many educators blast as well-intentioned but unrealistic given the deeply ingrained social and economic disparities that begin long before kids start school.

Poverty, parental education, life experience and even access to books play a role in preparing kids to learn, said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California- Berkeley.

"Family poverty and parenting practices are much bigger drivers of student learning than anything that happens in the classroom," Fuller said.

The law's reauthorization is two years overdue, and under a new president, its future is uncertain. Its catchy name will almost surely be scrapped given the law's unpopularity with teachers and parents. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called it a "toxic brand." Yet the driving goal of bringing all kids up to par and closing the achievement gap likely will continue.

"We intend to rebrand it as something else eventually," said Peter Cunningham, an Education Department spokesman. "Our bigger concern is finding the solutions, and we don't feel that No Child Left Behind always led the way toward them."

Oak Park and River Forest High School, like many others, has searched for an answer for decades.

Renowned for its diverse students, the school teased apart scores by income and race long before the state required it. The measures varied, but the conclusions did not: Poor and minority students routinely scored below peers. This year, 41 percent of black students passed the state reading exam, compared with 89 percent of white students. And 34 percent of low-income teens met progress targets for reading, compared with 80 percent of well-off students.

"We've pretty much treaded water," said Philip Prale, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. "These numbers, they're not about our students. They're about our school. They're about how did our school perform for our students."

Oak Park officials responded this year with a broad approach that focuses on all classrooms rather than on a few dozen teens in niche programs. All freshmen in algebra, for instance, take the same tests so teachers can compare what works best, Prale said. And incoming students who read below grade level can take an extra class designed to help them recoup 1.5 years of skills in a single year.

On a recent morning, teacher Sarah Rosas checked the notes her freshmen took after reading the first chapters on John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." Rosas works to prepare students who struggle with reading and writing to take a college-prep English class as sophomores.

"It's either a (score of) 1 or a 20 in my book.You can rewrite it as many times as you want, but it has to be right," Rosas told the group.

"Well, not as many times as we want, as many times as you want," Luis Ortiz, 14, joked, adding a concluding sentence to his paragraph.